Truckstop

You won't need as much power as you think to fill a small room with bass. I use an SWR Workingman's 10 (80w!) and it's perfect. Can handle a B fine and it's only a single 10" speaker. If possible, get one of those. They can be had for about £125 second hand. The Hartke kickback combos are also awesome. The 30w, 1x10" one would be great. I once saw a guy use one for a pub gig and there was enough power there to keep up with a band. Hartke make more powerful versions with larger speakers, any will be perfect for your needs. I'd avoid 1x15 combos purely because they're too large for what you need them for. Larger speakers don't necessarily 'handle bass' better, remember! It's all to do with efficiency. Anyway, good luck, hope you find something useful soon! Truckstop

Ever looked at a Yamaha BB424x? Vintage styling, passive, not far off a precision neck and sounds great. Excellent value for money! Truckstop

For sure the Ampeg PF's and the Gallien Kreuger MB's all have this function from my personal experience. I imagine it'd be the same for other class D type heads. Truckstop

I have an ME-20b and it's cracking. Good quality digital effects, well built and easily programmable on the fly. Was tempted by an ME-50b but just don't need it! Bigger units like the GT10, GT6 and M13 are harder to programme and adjust on the fly but the options are infinite in most cases. Much more useful than individual effects but need a lot of work! Whether or not they sound better is neither here not there, it's just you can get EXACTLY the effect you want. Truckstop

I WILL TAKE THIS AMP! PM'd! Alex

Identify your target area (that is, how far you're all willing to travel) and blanket email all the pubs in that area. Go village by village, town by town and email everyone. Get a lemonrock profile or a little website together with some good quality recordings and photos. If you want lots of gigs, you need to ask lots of people. A band I dep for band play anywhere within a 50mile radius of Luton so they play twice a week because they're willing to travel. Another band I dep for will only play locally so they only play once every two months with maybe a couple of extras over the summer for beer festivals and suchlike. I wouldn't bother pressing CD's or putting together a press pack. Most pubs really don't care that much. If you're looking for more prestigious work then put together a really good quality press pack and send it to 4* hotels and nightclubs. It's all about targeting your market properly and working out how much you want to play! Good luck! It's all really exciting at this point isn't it? Truckstop

I've always found that you tend to get more people volunteering to work at these events rather than come along as a guest. I've played a couple of local charity events and there's always tonnes of 'sound guys', 'caterers' and 'bar staff' but no punters! Truckstop

Ooh, alternatively, buy a clean boost pedal that you can turn on for solo or prounounced passages. Many of them come with a basic EQ; you can boost the volume AND mids/treble at the same time Truckstop

The SVT115E is quite a bright cab. I'd suggest adjusting your EQ before investing in a new cab. Try cutting the bass a bit and bumping the mids and treble. Also, try using brighter strings or using the tone controls on your bass to introduce a nice cutting zing. I used to own the SVT210HE cab and found it waaaay to bassy to use; I swapped it out for the 115 and was much happier. Larger speakers don't mean that you'll get better lows and smaller speakers aren't necessarily better with high frequencies. In many cases, two 10" speakers will kick out more pronounced bass frequencies than a single 15" speaker will do. Of course, it's down to other factors such as cab construction and efficiency but it's not as simple as speaker size. If you're determined to get a bigger rig, buy another 115E. It'll look better and you'll sound better because you won't have phase cancellation issues that arise from having mismatched speaker sizes! Good luck! Truckstop

I had a Sting signature bass which I wish I'd never sold on. Wonderful instrument and looked incredible! Worst piece of crap I ever owned was a Guild Starfire (I think it was called). Utter dogshit. Horrible body shape, made of polystyrene, horrid microphonic pickups, almost painful to wear on a strap and sold on for a tenner the next day. Truckstop

Don't want to put you on a downer because I know you're really excited about this project, but it really is much easier and much cheaper to wait for the model you want to come up for sale. I bet hundreds of guys on this site can empathise! Decent refinish will be £300+, refit the neck will be £150+ and a new pickup and guard could be £75 and at the end of the day you still have a MIM Jazz. A new neck will only be £100 and if it doesn't suit you can sell it on for more or less the same price. Fender Jazz necks tend to be made to a template so won't be that much of a difference between a new one and the one you currently have on your instrument. I once had a MIM Jazz 5 which I thought I'd take to the grave with me. Upgraded pups, got a John East J Retro, refinished it in Oly White and then ended up selling it at a massive loss a few months later. Sometimes you love an instrument because of what it is, not because of what it could be! I'm not a fan of the colour of my current no.1 (Oly white); I much prefer black. But I love it and if I refinished it or replaced it it simply wouldn't be the same bass that I love playing. Anyway, sorry for rambling, it's your stuff to do with whatever you want! Cheers, Alex

Oh, bad luck! Get in touch with te other bands on the bill, find a venue and put on another event! Between the 7 bands you should be able to afford/find a PA and soundman. Promote it locally and raise some money for another cause! DIY is the way forward! Truckstop

Not sure if you can get standard MIM Fenders with maple boards? I think some special run models and signature models do but obviously they'll cost more so part exchanging looks less attractive. Personally, I'd swap out the neck for a maple one. Cost effective and it'll look great with a black body and white guard! Truckstop

'Funk' is such a great word. Never get tired of saying it!

I'd suggest that funk is more a playing style than a tone. Like, you can sound funky whatever you use. I think it's the Herbie Flowers and Stanley Clark connection that made people link funk with the jazz bass. Really, you can create some really funky basslines on anything!

P bass! Squier CV range basses are excellent for the money and well worth the investment. With your budget you may be lucky enough to nab a US precision. You may need to sacrifice your ideal colour combination though. I'd guess the main characteristic you want for funk and motown would be passive electronics and single-coil pickups. Motown utilises the neck pickup and you can get a killer funk/slap sound from the bridge pickup of a Jazz. Hence, try a PJ! The Yamaha BB424x is, in my opinion, the best bass for the money on the market right now. Can be had second hand for less than £250, they look great, they're passive and are very well built. Truckstop

Shirt and shoes. Cannot go wrong!

You haven't come into contact with any radioactive waste recently, have you? Maybe you could try to harness this newfound power and use it to fight evil. Buzzing noises can annoy even the most hardened of criminals. Truckstop

A good quality 4x10 would be much better I think. Hartke Hydrive or SWR Neo-Lite? I've always had more pronounced lows through 4x10 config cabs than 15's. Truckstop

Yamaha BB424's are great basses and you'll get plenty of change out of £300. Alternatively, have a look at some 80's Ibanez and Aria. Some great instruments there with the kudos and mojo of an oldie. What a lovely position to be in! Truckstop

I remember playing a pub in Ruislip last year. Can't remember what it was called, thankfully. It was a massive Victorian corner type place with a huge stage and a massive house PA (that we weren't allowed to use). Sadly empty of punters but for two mental looking kids propping up the bar. So we started in earnest figuring it'd be a paid rehearsal. Landlady didn't move the pool table from the dance floor, not that anyone was there to dance, and it generally stank. No punters, chef smoking outside the front door all night and no staff to be seen behind the bar. Halfway through the second set one of the kids ran up to the stage shouting "play something we know!!!!!" and gripped our 68 year old singer by the neck and started choking him. I threw off my instrument (string tree fell off), shoved the dude out of the way and pinned him against a wall. He was definitely on something so I proceeded with caution when I handled him to the floor and stuck my knee in his back. The drummer went off to find the landlady (who was upstairs watching TV) who came down and told the guy to piss off before she called the police. I let him get up and he slapped me in the face before running off, laughing. w***er. We packed up in record time, got paid and left. I charged the landlady the cost of getting my string tree fixed (£50, at the time(!)) and vowed never to go back. So I left the band soon after because I was bored of it and then found out that they'd accepted another gig at the same place. Unbelievably, the singer got attacked again! This time in the car park while loading out. Smallest has to be the 12 Bar in Camden. Great vibe! Truckstop